Moscow on the Hudson (1984) on Netflix
Vladimir Ivanoff plays saxophone in a Moscow circus that travels to New York. His friend Anatoly, a clown, plans to defect, and the KGB handlers want Vladimir to watch him.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.5/1014,331 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes73%
Trailer
Plot summary
Vladimir Ivanoff is a saxophonist with a Moscow circus. He lives in a crowded apartment with his extended family and stands in long lines for toilet paper and for shoes that don't fit. His friend Anatoly, a clown in the circus, hates living in the Soviet Union; Vladimir is generally content. The circus travels to New York City for a show, where Anatoly plans to defect. The KGB handlers assigned to the troupe want Vladimir to spy on Anatoly.
Cast
- Lyudmila Kramarevskayaas Vladimir's Mother (as Ludmila Kramarevsky)
- Ivo Vrzal-Wiegandas Vladimir's Father (as Ivo Vrzal)
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Moscow on the Hudson (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After considering many locations for the Moscow portion of the film, Paul Mazursky settled on Munich, Germany, based on the flexibility that Bavaria Studios offered him, with full control over an authentic “Eastern European street”.
- The film's poster, showing New York in the foreground with Moscow beyond, drew a copyright lawsuit from artist Saul Steinberg over his famous New Yorker cover View of the World from 9th Avenue, and a court ruled in Steinberg's favor.
- Director Paul Mazursky based the film on his own grandfather, who had emigrated from Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) nearly 80 years earlier, and he researched it by visiting New York's Russian immigrant community and making his first trip to the Soviet Union.
- Robin Williams learned to speak some of the Russian language for the film in a crash course, and he also learned to play the saxophone for the part.
